George Ilsley's Reviews > John Marr and Other Poems

"John Marr" is a short prose work.

I have three books with the title Billy Budd and Other Stories; all have different combinations of stories. Only one has "John Marr" and it is described in Harold Beaver's lengthy introduction as "experimental".

"John Marr" is a biographical sketch of an old sailor who ends up among farmers, far from the ocean (to his land bound neighbours the ocean existed only as a "rumour"). The old sailor then is a fish out of water, as estranged from his neighbours as he is from his old companions.

Is "John Marr" a prose poem, as suggested by the title of this collection? It is relatively opaque, and perhaps that is why Mr. Beaver considers it experimental.

Note: I've only read "John Marr"; not the other works in this volume.